The Good, The Bad & The Impartial from the week one loss to the Cowboys

Each week, in the days following each Tampa Bay Buccaneers gang, you will be able to read “The good, the bad & the impartial” as part of a running series within the WhatTheBucs.com blog. This week, we discuss the 34-21 loss to Dallas, the resurgence of Cadillac, the unselfishness of Graham, the struggles of Sabby & more.

The Good:
Cadillac Williams is back!

And then some. Williams was the talk of the last few weeks of training camp after he was named the opening day starting running back by head coach Raheem Morris.

Williams, who has sustained two major knee injuries that required massive reconstructive surgery has been the target of much skepticism during the pre season.

His efforts in the season opener went miles towards silencing his naysayers.  Williams rushed for an electric 97 yards and one touchdown on 13 carries.

Williams split carries with key free agent addition Derrick Ward–who was not too shabby himself. Ward rushed for 62 yards and a touchdown in his 12 carries. While his 5.2 yards per carry average was not as good as WIlliams’ 7.6, it is safe to say that Morris will take it any day of the week.

What is the MOST impressive thing from the Bucs trio of running backs in this game was the stunningly unselfish gesture by Earnest Graham.

Graham had been the teams featured back since 2007. When Morris was set to put Graham in the game for his scheduled possessions of the game, something unheard of happened–Graham opted not go into the game.

When asked why Graham saw no carries, Morris explained it as follows:

“That was a product of Earnest Graham coming to me and saying keep those guys in because they are hot,” said Morris. “Like I told you guys last night, that is what this team has got to become. We got to become that way across the board. If I could copy that running back room and put it throughout my team and change the body types I would. Earnest Graham came to me, I said ‘it is your series.’ He said ‘no put Caddy in, he’s hot.’ Okay. That’s what it’s got to be about.”

In a league that is seemingly all about “look at me look at me” and personal statistics, Graham’s gesture was unprecedented.

The Bad:
When I look back at the game, and think about what was bad, one name rings synonymous with “bad” and that is Sabby Piscitelli.

As much as it pains me to say this Piscitelli was down right horrible.

I have been a big supporter of Piscitelli since late last season. I think he kid has a swagger about him that will drive him to be successful, but his performance on the field against Dallas spoke very loud.

Piscitelli was burnt for two touchdowns up the middle of the field and blamed his poor defense on “bad communication.

His boss sees it differently.

“Whenever you have those types of big plays, they’re just heart breakers,” Morris said. “The communication, I didn’t really hear that one. We knew exactly where everyone was. We’re not into pointing fingers, and that is something I’ve got to stop. We don’t do that. We’re not going to do that.”

I sure do hope Piscitelli can turn it around. Morris has no doubt he can, and I really do think he has the skill set to be one of the better safeties in franchise history.

The Impartial:
Mike Nugent missed a field goal. Soon as it happened, all the Bucs Twitter followers–myself included–had some smart remark about Matt Bryant smiling somewhere.

But after the game, I had a chance to look back at my Tweets, and reflect on different things I had said.

This is the conclusion I came to about Nugent.

I still feel Bryant should have made the team over Nugent, but we need to remember that as fans, kickers miss field goals. None of them are perfect. Long term, Nugent is the right fit for the team. Morris has made the decision to go with him. One missed field goal doesn’t make it a bad decision.

Five or six do make it a bad one.

Let’s hope it doesn’t reach that level.

Comments, questions, concerns? Talk it up! Leave a comment below or contact me at thomas.gemkow@tampabayraysfan.com and as always, follow me on Twitter @ThomasGemkow